The Families & Faces Of Tip-Over Deaths

It happens. Here is a HOW TO way to prevent it.

Author:
Tanya Rivera

Published:
7:01 PM EST January 3, 2017

Updated:
7:01 PM EST January 3, 2017

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, on average, a child dies every two weeks when a TV or a piece of furniture falls on them. And 2/3 of the furniture tip-over fatalities involve toddlers.

Numbers are numbers though, until you put names and faces with them. These three moms lost their children, because the child's dresser fell on top of them. In the attached video, you'll hear a bit of their stories they told in an effort to bring awareness to the tip-over issue. One simply put her child down for a nap and then found the child under the dresser when she went to go wake him up. Another said instead of putting a hole in her wall, she now had a hole in her heart. How they all wish they could change what happened.

2WTK has been talking about anchoring furniture for years. One of our best pieces of information came from Scott Dampier of Housemasters.“So, here it's very common for your furniture to come with a kit like this from the hardware manufacturer. Many times it's in a drawer just like this but people fail to attach it. You get one bracket, this mounts to the wall. And make sure you find a stud to attach it to. Then this is in the wall with the stud. The second part mounts to the back of the furniture piece. Make sure it's in the solid furniture rails or the mid-spine. It comes with a zip tie. And what happens is these two pieces are zip tied together. And that will keep the dresser from moving.”

And while we've focused on dressers and bookcases, one of the most overlooked items is your stove. It needs to be anchored too.